When Darkness Falls
by rachel121
Summary: They survived the beasts, but what next? Please Read and Review


Title: When Darkness Falls, Ficlet  
  
Rating: PG - 13  
  
Category: Drama  
  
Archive: Please ask first, I am a Yes-Girl  
  
Summary: Are they really safe once aboard the skiff?  
  
Disclaimer: Do not own the rights to Richard B Riddick, Jack, Imam or any other references to Pitch Black the movie...  
  
Feedback: Oh please, oh please...It fills the quill and feeds the beast.  
  
Special Notes: Thanks to Zoe for the Beta, and Mami and Bayou for the encouragement on this one. I know its late, but please give it a read anyway.  
  
In darkness they waited. The ship's many utilities, including lights, had been shut down to give as much power as possible to the oxygen generator, which was desperately in need of repair. Riddick watched Jack as she slept, knowing that the depleting oxygen would be easier for both her and the Holy Man to deal with when breathing became more difficult. He, however, forced himself to stay awake, slowing his breathing to the cusp between conscious and sleep, using only enough air to stay awake.  
  
Entering the coordinates for the nearest cluster of planets, he set the speed for the fastest but most efficient traveling velocity, ensuring that even if they all became unconscious, someone would find them. It was difficult to swallow that it could end like this; the escape from Slam, the crash of the HG, surviving the survivors, and then the beasts. He had made it this far, and in the end, he would die from a lack of air, moving through the vast universe, seeking a beacon.  
  
An audible gasp from Jack forced his eyes away from the darkness. She was trying to sit up, her hands to her throat, trying to draw in a full breath and not getting enough oxygen. Her eyes were wide but unfocused and she was becoming frantic. He looked behind to see how the Holy Man was doing. He was still in the submissive prayer position he had been in half an hour ago, so Riddick left the pilots seat to check his pulse. It was faint, his breathing was shallow and even, instead of laboured like Jack's.  
  
Jack's gasping became louder, with a high-pitched mewling sound coming from deep in her chest. Unable to remain detached, he took her in his arms, using instincts he had no idea existed in him. Stroking her back and calming her for her inevitable coma, while focusing on keeping himself awake.  
  
After a few minutes her struggles stopped, her eyes closed and her breathing moved into a shallow pattern. Riddick slowly checked her pulse, still alive, but barely.  
  
He knew what would be happening to them all next. The shallow breathing would slow their hearts, and their brain activity would decrease. Their organs would move into an autopilot mode, each function continuing to slow until death claimed them. At the rate they were going, he knew it would be another hour maybe two before the reaper paid a visit. Two hours maximum, traveling at 1000km per second, for someone to find them.  
  
He returned her cathartic body to the co-pilots chair, taking a moment to buckle her in. His eyes returned to the void space ahead of them, seeking a light, something to direct them to safety.  
  
He could feel his own breathing becoming difficult, and settled himself in the chair, knowing that soon all he would have left would be his thoughts. He briefly wondered about that, he never slept in cryo, would this be any different? Would he be fully aware as his organs began to fail? Would he feel his heart slow, his brain dull? Or in death would he finally escape his ever-present thoughts?  
  
His eyesight dulled, the lines of the distant stars becoming blurry, and he began to count, forcing his breaths to come less often. Counting forwards to a breath in, counting backwards to a breath out. As he counted, visions of his past flitted in his mind, like broken celluloid film.  
  
Six years old - A man, an angry man, his eyes filled with disgust and hatred, yelling at a woman. The woman was scared and cowering, and little Ricky running to protect her, receiving a backhand to the face for his efforts. He frowned at this memory, still not quite understanding why she would hit him, when all he was trying to do was save her.  
  
Thirteen years old - hacking into his personal file, reading the events of his birth and his first few hours. The pictures of the tiny infant covered in blood, a thick purple cord wrapped around his neck, lying amidst the refuse in a dumpster. That was the day he ran away, determined to live on his own from then on.  
  
Seventeen years old - working within an organized crime syndicate, his size and cold heartedness making up for his youth. He was returning from the home of his first victim, an arsonist who had destroyed some highly coveted and almost well protected assets. Riddick, as he preferred to be called, was walking along the shadows of an alley, avoiding detection.. A group of young men came rushing through, and he ducked into a doorway, hiding in the shadows. From the midst of the group came a young girl in a nurse's uniform, her dress torn, and her skirt bloodied. It became painfully obvious that they were intent on gang-raping her and that one or more had already gotten their opportunity, before becoming more discreet and hiding in the deserted alley.  
  
The girl was scared but carried an aura of strength, as she screamed at her captors to help her. She looked around the group, catching the eyes of those brave enough to look at her, and giving scornful looks to those who stared at the ground. Somehow, she saw what her attackers couldn't, and she directed her plea to the invisible Riddick, staring into his eyes, through the cover of darkness.  
  
Less than ten men, boys really, and his massive size and intimidating stance chased all but two of them away. His shiv cut the first from stem to stern, and the second caught it in the sweet spot. The girl stood there as her terror turned to indifference. Standing, Riddick wiped the shiv on his already bloodied pant leg, knowing he looked far more fierce than all of her attackers together. She spit on the one boy, briefly nodded to Riddick then turned and walked away, back straight, but a slight hobble to her step. Riddick continued on his journey that night but was later charged with her rape and the boys' murder. 'Justice is blind,' he captioned that memory.  
  
Twenty years old - His first glimpse of Slam before they closed the doors, effectively shutting out all light. The narrow bed, the hole in the floor, the shapes of other inmates. The look of it was bad enough, but when they closed the door, the sounds crept in. The scurrying and squeaking of rats, the low murmurs of voices, separated only by the personal barriers each inmate constructed.  
  
Twenty-One years old - his first images after the shine job that altered his vision, enabling him to see in the dark, yet forever banning him from the light. No longer would he see the world in focus, but learned to see beyond the shadows. And he was able to protect himself from those who would choose to harm him by catching him unaware. He would never be unaware again.  
  
Twenty-Five years old - looking through a shield similar to the skiff, seeing the stars and meteors and other planets. Being free of slam and its torturous constraints. He saw the blood on his hands, and for a moment felt regret for the young pilot. Unlike the guards who contributed to the devastation, this was simply a supply run, and the pilot was almost an innocent victim. Or would be if Riddick refused to believe that anyone could be truly innocent. When the time was safe, Riddick moved to the back of the ship and scrubbed the blood from his hands, the thick stickiness making his skin itch.  
  
Thirty-One years old - Staring into the blue eyes of Johns, knowing that his time had come. Johns had been chasing him since he had escaped slam, and a moment of weakness, a moment of human fallibility.  
  
While entering a space-port, he spotted a stowaway about to be nabbed by the authorities. He had taken a risk to distract the guards, enabling the young scamp to get away. It had been almost difficult to not lose the guards, but he stayed within reach of them, playing a game of cat and mouse until he knew the kid would be long gone. Then he had easily lost the over eager authorities, running straight in to the reach of Johns.  
  
The next memory was fuzzy, and Riddick's mind grabbed at it, wanting to see Carolyn's face once more. As his mind pulled toward the blurry vision of her, his hand reached across to Jack, reaching for her hand, his thumb feeling for her pulse. This was the end. it would end as it had begun, in darkness. 


End file.
